Two teams have clinched spots in the playoffs and that number could start going up on Thursday night.
If the Seahawks beat the Rams at home, they will join the Rams in the NFC bracket. They would also take over first place in the NFC West and the top spot in the conference with two games left to play.
The Seahawks will also get into the dance if the Lions lose to the Steelers on Sunday. A Lions loss would also punch the ticket for the winner of Saturday’s game between the Packers and Bears in Chicago and it would give the 49ers a spot regardless of how they fare against the Colts on Monday night. Both the Packers and Bears will get in if they tie and the Lions lose.
The 49ers won’t need any help from the Lions if they beat the Colts.
The Eagles will clinch the NFC East with a win over the Commanders on Saturday or a Cowboys loss to the Chargers on Sunday.
The Broncos are the only other team with the ability to wrap up a division title this weekend. They’ve already clinched a playoff spot and will take the AFC West if they beat the Jaguars while the Chargers lose. Getting those results as well as a Bills loss and a Patriots loss will make the Broncos the No. 1 seed in the AFC.
The Patriots will clinch a playoff spot with a win over the Ravens. They also get in with a Colts loss to the 49ers or a Texans loss to the Raiders.
The Bills, Chargers, and Jaguars can all book their spots in the postseason by winning and getting a loss by either of those AFC South teams. The Bills will be in Cleveland on Sunday.
The Colts have a healthy young quarterback, a quarterback who is coming back from an injury sustained in an unfortunate pregame accident, and a 44-year-old grandfather who just started his first game since the 2020 postseason.
As we know, between Riley Leonard, Anthony Richardson, and Philip Rivers, it’s Rivers who is set to start the Week 16 matchup against the 49ers on Monday Night Football.
Richardson has been cleared for football activities, but in a Monday press conference, head coach Shane Steichen did not definitively say one way or another whether or not Richardson would have his 21-day practice window opened this week. While Leonard could be an option, Steichen was fairly blunt when asked why the team would go with Rivers instead of potentially giving the rookie a shot.
“Obviously, we wanted to see how Philip did on Sunday, and I thought he did some really good things. To bring in a guy of his age and where he’s at in his career — we didn’t bring him in here to sit on the bench. I’ll say that,” Steichen said, via transcript from the team. “So, he’s excited for this challenge. We obviously got to take it one week at a time, and then we go from there.”
Rivers looked limited at times by different factors during Sunday’s loss to the Seahawks, finishing 18-of-27 for 120 yards with a touchdown and an interception. But Rivers’ knowledge of the offensive scheme and how defenses would attack it allowed him to overcome some of those limitations to be an effective signal-caller. The numbers indicate Rivers didn’t do much downfield passing, but he didn’t necessarily have to.
“Yeah, I think obviously, we talked about a little bit earlier, but going into that game plan — that was the game plan,” Steichen said. “We wanted to run the ball, control the clock, take easy completions. I thought we did a pretty good job of that. And our defense was phenomenal. They played awesome. Obviously, they didn’t score a touchdown. And to kick that field goal there at the end to have a chance to win it — I thought it was like a hard-fought game. I thought our guys played their tail off, and just at the end, it wasn’t enough. We’ve got to find a way to do that.
“I thought Philip did a hell of a job of managing that game plan. That was the plan going into it. I thought he did a hell of a job. Obviously, on the road in a hostile environment, first one back in a long time. He did what was necessary to put us in position to win that game.”
As for the aftermath of the game, Steichen said Rivers felt good coming into the building on Monday.
“He’s in the quarterback room right now watching tape,” Steichen said. “He’s like, ‘I’ve got my normal bruises that I had when I played.’ But he said, ‘I feel pretty darn good.’ So, that was good for him to come out of the game clean. And then obviously he’s excited for the challenge coming up this week.”
“Obviously, it is a story, and he knows that. But I mean, it’s about the team, and he’s here to help us win football games. Otherwise he wouldn’t be here, and he’s going to fight like crazy, just like he always has his whole career to help win one week at a time — as to his mindset, and that’s what he’s looking forward to, of the challenge each and every week of preparing to get ready to go out and compete and try to win a football game.”
Former Raiders head coach Mike White died Sunday in Newport Beach, California, the team announced on Monday. He was 89.
White was the Raiders’ quarterbacks and offensive line coach from 1990-94 before becoming the head coach in 1995. He lasted only two seasons, going 8-8 and 7-9.
White finished his career with three seasons as an offensive assistant with the Rams.
“The Raiders Family is saddened by the passing of Mike White, former head coach of the Silver and Black and a long-time NFL and college coach and mentor,” the Raiders said in a statement. “The prayers of the entire Raider Nation are with Mike’s family at this time.”
White, a Bay Area native, starred at Cal and coached at his alma mater, Stanford and Illinois. In 1978-79, he served on the 49ers’ staff as the offensive line coach.
He coached under Bill Walsh and Dick Vermeil before getting his first head coaching job.
White was head coach at Cal from 1972-77 and at Illinois from 1980-87.
The second game of the Philip Rivers reunion tour will be broadcast to a national audience.
Colts coach Shane Steichen told reporters on Monday that Rivers will start the Week 16 Monday night game against the 49ers.
The game has massive ramifications for the 8-6 Colts, who started 7-1 and have lost five of six games.
They gave the Seahawks a run for their money on Sunday, losing 18-16 after taking a 16-15 lead with 47 seconds to play.
Rivers, in his first game since the 2000 wild-card playoffs, completed 18 of 27 passes for 120 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. He was sacked once.
The Colts are currently the No. 8 seed in the AFC postseason field. If the Colts fail to qualify, they’ll be the sixth team since the merger to start 7-1 or better and miss the playoffs — and the first to do so since the league expanded the tournament to seven teams per conference.
There was a storybook ending to Philip Rivers’ return to the NFL on Sunday, but he and the Colts were on the wrong side of it.
Rivers completed a key third down pass to Alec Pierce to set up Blake Grupe’s 60-yard field goal with 47 seconds left to play in Seattle and the kick put the Colts ahead on the road in a game they desperately needed to boost their chances of making the playoffs. The lead would not hold, however. Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold completed a pair of passes that set up a 56-yard field goal that Jason Myers hit to make the Colts 18-16 losers in Rivers’ first game since 2020.
After the game, Rivers said it was “a blast” to be back on the field but a disappointment because the Colts are “scrapping like crazy to try to stay alive and get in the postseason.” They didn’t help that cause on Sunday and Rivers knows that time is running short for the team to rescue itself.
“If I can stay healthy, I feel good, and it is going to get better as we go,” Rivers said. “But the catch is that we’ve got to win. It doesn’t really matter if it’s getting better as we go if we don’t win because it’s going to be over in three weeks. So that’s the catch there. But it’s going to continue to get better. I mean, this is obviously the first one. We’re talking about three days of practice.”
Rivers gets an extra day to prepare for Week 16 because the Colts will be at home against the 49ers next Monday night and the Colts will need to be at their best if they want to have a chance at being on the right side of a fairy tale in Week 18.
